


Jalil Goes Hang-Gliding

by secretagentspydetectiveninja



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of it, and minor aro ace angst, but mostly crack, i don't even know anything about hang-gliding, jalil and theo are bitter exes for some reason, lots of sibling friendship fluff, some minor gay angst, the name of this fic is a lie it's about both the kubdel siblings equally, they mention drugs but no one actually does any drugs i promise, this is so cracky omg i'm sorry, viewers are advised not to try these stunts at home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-14 12:59:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11783649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secretagentspydetectiveninja/pseuds/secretagentspydetectiveninja
Summary: Jalil accidentally goes hang-gliding and ends up entering a competition. Somehow bank robberies are involved.





	1. Jalil starts hang-gliding

**Author's Note:**

> Me and @foxruz were having a really bizarre conversation where we sort of came up with the entire plot to this fic. I didn't think I was ever going to actually write it but I guess I did?? Please don't take this seriously omg

Relatives were so annoying.

Well okay, not all relatives. Big brothers were fine. Everyone else though? _Annoying._ Why were they always coming over to visit? All they did was walk into the house and immediately judge it if it wasn’t completely spotless, then drink seven cups of tea and eat all the snacks while talking loudly about boring stuff that didn’t matter, and not leave until at least two hours after they had said they would. And the absolutely worst thing was the invasive, annoying questions.

“How’s your school going?” was not too awful. That could be dealt with. It wasn’t like Alix was failing or anything. Though it was unfair that school seemed to be one of the only things annoying relatives cared about when it came to teenagers. Not “what’s your favourite hobby” or “what sort of movies are you into”, no, they always had to ask about boring, stressful stuff. As if academic success was all that mattered.

“Do you know yet what sort of job you want?” That question was much worse. How the heck was she supposed to know? At the moment her honest answer was still “a super awesome rock star” and she was sure that would not go down well. Why was stuff like that all adults cared about?

And the worst question of all.

“Do you have a boyfriend yet?”

Ew. As if. And even if she did, it was none of their business. But no one seemed to take no for an answer.

“Oh come on, there must be someone! You’re such a pretty girl, I bet you’re a real heartbreaker! Are you sure you’re not just hiding it? Who’s the lucky guy?”

Oh dear god, it was like they _wanted_ her to have a boyfriend, despite always telling her to “focus on her studies” and “not get distracted by peer pressure”. Like they wanted an excuse to tell her off, but they wanted her to be “normal”.

They would totally flip their lids if they knew she was aromantic.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t tried telling them. It was just that no one had believed her. “Oh honey, you’re too young to say that!” “You just haven’t found the right guy yet!” “You’re just trying to be a rebel – it’s okay! You don’t have to make stuff up to sound edgy!”

And that would firmly be the end of the conversation. If she ever tried to bring it up again, her dad would glare at her until she stopped talking. It was so unfair. How could she get them to believe her? Or at least stop pestering her? Maybe they were right, maybe in the future she would change, but for now their constant badgering was just annoying as hell. Surely there had to be some way to convince everyone that getting a boyfriend was not necessarily a good thing?

 

The answer arrived unexpectedly, right after the last day of school had ended for the summer holidays, and from the oddest source possible – Lê Chiến Kim. He quickly ran after her just as she was leaving.

“Alix, I need your help with something!” he said. “But it’s top secret. You can’t tell anyone.”

She hadn’t expected Kim to be asking her for help, of all people, but whatever. “What is it?”

“You’re aro ace, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So like… if someone hypothetically came out to you as bi, then you would be okay with it, right?”

“Yep.”

“And if that same person, hypothetically, was a guy who had recently got a boyfriend but can’t tell anyone because he’s not ready to come out to everyone yet… but he accidentally let slip that he was dating someone and now everyone wants to know who it is…”

“If you’re telling me that you’re bi and have a boyfriend then good for you,” Alix said, trying to sound as if she cared at least a little bit.

“Yeah, okay fine, it is me. And the boyfriend is Max. But uh… can I ask a favour?”

“That depends on what it is.”

“Well… um…” Kim was fiddling around with the strings on his hoodie, looking rather uncomfortable. “I kinda need someone to cover for Max. ‘Cause everyone wants to know who it is I’m dating, and no one will stop asking me.”

Oh, so that was why everyone had been crowding around Kim today? Maybe Alix should have actually paid some attention to what had been going on at school, rather than daydreaming about her new Nintendo Switch all day.

“And I asked Marinette first,” Kim continued, “but she said she doesn’t want to pretend to be my girlfriend, since she doesn’t want Adrien to think she’s unavailable. And I don’t know who else to ask, since I don’t really know how accepting anyone would be, except for you… so um… would you like… pretend to… y’know… just for like 2 days or something! And then we could fake break-up or whatever, it’s fine, just until all the attention dies down…”

“So you want me to pretend to be your girlfriend while you secretly date Max,” Alix said, a plan forming in her head.

“Yeah, pretty much. I know it’s stupid, thinking isn’t my strong point. Please don’t punch me.”

Thinking wasn’t his strong point? That was true. And could also work to her advantage.

“Of course I’m not gonna punch you, I’m not a monster,” she said. “And I accept your plan. With a few conditions.”

“Oh, okay!”

“First things first, your one-sided rivalry with me ends here. I’ve been trying to make friends with you for ages, you idiot.”

“Wait really? Same!”

“Then you’re very bad at it.”

“But so are you…”

“Okay, fine.” That was true. Friendship was not something she had a lot of. Or any at all, really. “And the other thing – we’re gonna use this as an excuse to annoy my family as much as possible.”

“Um… why?”

“They’re always telling me I should get a boyfriend, even though I said I don’t want one. So if I pretend to have a really reckless, irresponsible boyfriend who is really bad for me? Maybe then they’ll shut up.”

Kim frowned. “Are you calling me reckless and irresponsible?”

“Yes.”

“Well… I don’t know exactly what that means, but I’m gonna take it as a compliment.”

Oh thank goodness. Finally someone her bluntness didn’t offend. Hopefully he would be a good choice of friend after all.

“Listen here, Kim,” she said. “We are going to do our best to stress out my dad as much as we can. You have to try to make him hate you. If he does, the rest of my annoying extended relatives will follow suit. And then they’ll tell me to dump you and never try to pressure me into getting a boyfriend ever again.”

Kim’s frown turned into a grin. “I’m an expert at getting people to hate me! This is gonna be so much fun!”

“Exactly. And in the meantime, I won’t tell anyone about your secret boyfriend.”

“Yes! Thanks!”

He held his hand out for a fist bump, and she happily obliged.

 

 

 

Jalil knew something was up immediately. He knew his little sister very well, better than anyone else did. So when she brought that annoying panther-challenging kid round for lunch, he could tell that something did not add up within just a few seconds.

“So,” said their father, “how did you two get together?”

“Well we were at the zoo–”

“–and there was an akuma attack–”

“–and Max was definitely not there–”

“–Ladybug locked us in a cage!”

“–and there was a dolphin–”

“Kim there wasn’t a dolphin!”

“Okay fine, it was a shark–”

Jalil was one of the few people who could tell when Alix was lying. She didn’t lie often, she usually was very brutal with the truth. But she was lying right now for sure.

“Hm, that’s nice,” said their father, barely listening. “I’m glad at least one of my children is growing up to be what I expected of them.”

Ugh, this again? Jalil always tried so hard to be what his father expected of him. It wasn’t his fault that he was gay, with a homophobic dad who tried so hard to pretend not to be. No wonder every relative within a 50-kilometre range was so adamant that surely, _surely_ Alix wasn’t aro ace. At least one of the kids had to be straight. Right?

“And Kim got like three detentions yesterday,” Alix said.

“Four, actually,” Kim added.

“Yeah. He punched someone in the face. And didn’t do his homework.”

“And did a backflip down the stairs.”

“Um… yeah. That too.”

“Very good,” said the father, still barely listening.

“And he also sells crack. Loads of it.”

“Yeah,” said Kim. “I’m super rich. I sold like seven tonnes just this morning.”

“And he sells… uh… weed. And cocaine. And tobacco. And heroin. And lots of alcohol. And… like… ethylcarbomethanolnitrogen. Isn’t that right, sweetie?”

“Absolutely!” Kim gave a big thumbs up.

Mr Kubdel just chuckled. “Good, good…”

“Um no, not good!” Jalil said, slamming his hand down on the table. “That’s actually pretty bad!”

“Don’t worry Jalil, I know what I’m doing,” Alix said, giving him a very pointed look.

“You’d better be joking about the drug smuggling.”

“Of course I’m not joking! Would I ever lie to you? Anyway, we have to go now.” She stood up and grabbed the side of Kim’s hoodie, pulling him up too.

“Where are you going?”

“We’re gonna go hang-gliding off the Eiffel Tower. It was totally Kim’s idea. He is _such_ a good influence on me.”

“Wait no, you can’t just go h–”

The two idiots had already sped off out of the door before he could finish his sentence. He turned to his father.

“And you’re just going to let them?”

Mr Kubdel sighed. “Jalil, stop trying to interfere in your sister’s life.”

“But she’s going to jump off the Eiffel Tower! She could die!”

“It’s alright, she has Kim with her.”

“Ah yes, the drug smuggler. Thank goodness a sensible, responsible guy like him is there looking out for her. It’s not like they’re _both_ going to die or anything. I’m going after them.”

“Jalil, you have chores to do!”

But Jalil himself could be speedy too sometimes. He walked out of the door without another word.

 

The first thing he did was rush to the nearest hang-gliding store and buy himself a hang-glider and helmet. He then had a quick read of a few WikiHow articles. Then he made his way to the top of the Eiffel Tower with his new equipment and leapt off.

For a few moments he forgot entirely why he was up here. For starters, he had never seen Paris from this view before. It was marvellous! Was this what it felt like to be a bird? Was this what it was like for Ladybug and Chat Noir, soaring freely over the rooftops of this magnificent city?

He had already been flying for several minutes before he remembered his objective. Find Alix. And that other guy. But mostly Alix.

Jalil had a look around, but all he could see in the skies were pigeons and aeroplanes. No other hang-gliders around here. Surely she couldn’t already be dead? He looked down at the ground to see if he could spot any tragic accidents, and…

Wait, was that her??? Alive and well???

It certainly was. She was somewhere near the Trocadero, chatting with what looked from here like Kim and Max. And there was no hang-gliding equipment in sight. He had flown up here for nothing.

“CURSE YOU ALIX!” he called from his lonely vantage point up in the air, knowing she wouldn’t be able to hear him. A few seconds later, however, she had clearly spotted him since she started waving. The other two turned and starting waving too. Then nearby pedestrians started waving, watching Jalil’s flight.

Well, this was embarrassing. It was probably best to just land as quick as possible. He started going into a descent, noticing as he did so that someone on the ground had got their phone out and started recording him. Not just anyone – it was that one kid who he had tried to sacrifice when he was akumatized! The one who ran the Ladyblog! Oh man, was she going to put the video on her blog? He had to land as soon as he could!

But his glider, conspiring with the air currents, had other ideas. He was pushed back upwards again, then down, then up, going along in a rather bumpy wave. It was almost possible to hear the onlookers gasping at his perilous antics. He dared to look down and saw that a crowd had formed. Oh great. Now there were going to be loads of people to watch his painful death.

The air currents buffeted him around some more, pushing the nose of his glider up so high that all he could see was blue sky stretching away into the void. And then, with a jolt that went right through his guts, the glider flipped over completely. For a few terrifying seconds he was flying upside down.

And then it flipped again, righting itself. The crowd below him was cheering. Did they think he had done it on purpose? In any case, he began trying to descend again… and then thought better of it.

That flip… it had been kind of fun. Dangerous, sure, but exhilarating. No wonder people liked extreme sports if this was what it felt like. He let the air currents pull him along again. Over the next several minutes the glider pulled off several more stunts, and Jalil was figuring out how to control it a little better. Every turn was better than the last. It was just like being a bird – being able to perform all sorts of acrobatics in the air, without gravity having to end it!

He eventually landed in a space the crowd had left for him, all applauding him wildly. As soon as he was safe and settled he was swarmed by people congratulating him and telling him what a great job he had done. Was this what it was like to be a celebrity?

“Hey Jalil!” Alya called, waving her phone at him. “Can I put this video up online?”

“Please do!” he said.

“Neat! This is gonna get so many views!”

She disappeared back into the crowd. Jalil tried to make his way out so that he could go home again, only to suddenly be tackle-hugged by the little sister whose fault this was in the first place.

“That was AWESOME!” Alix said, beaming at him. “I never knew you were so good at hang-gliding!”

“Neither did I,” Jalil admitted. “But I was only doing it to take care of you! What were you doing on the ground?”

“I wasn’t really gonna go hang-gliding, I was just saying that so that dad would pay proper attention…”

“So the drug smuggling wasn’t real either?”

“Nah, that was a joke. If anyone in the class sells drugs, it’s Ivan. But I don’t think even he does.”

So if she had been joking about the drugs and joking about the hang-gliding, then was she even telling the truth about anything at all? He was just about to ask her when he was tapped on the shoulder by someone. Turning around, he saw the familiar face of news reporter Nadja Chamack, holding up a microphone at him. A cameraman was close behind.

“Jalil Kubdel, could you tell us a little about this flight of yours that has captured the interest of the nation?”

An interview? This was so cool! And he wasn’t even akumatized this time!

“I would love to,” he said.

“Excellent! So, have you ever been hang-gliding before?”

“No, this was my first time.”

“And yet you performed so many expert stunts! Wow, you really are a natural! Have you thought about entering the Paris Hang-Gliding Competition?”

The what?

“No, I didn’t know that was a thing.”

“It takes place in three weeks. Do you think you’d be interested in participating? Apparently there’s a large cash prize for the winner.”

Cash! That was something he needed more of. His family were rich, of course, but he was pretty sure he had been written out of the will. Just some of the woes of being gay.

“Oh, I will _definitely_ be participating,” he said.

“Good to hear it!”

The interview carried on in a more generic manner, with Nadja asking him about his life in general, whether anyone else in his family liked hang-gliding, that sort of thing. He hadn’t expected to be any good at interviews but to his surprise, it just all came naturally. Perhaps hang-gliding had lifted his spirits more than he thought it would.


	2. Jalil is not allowed to go hang-gliding

When Jalil returned home late that afternoon, he saw that Alix was just outside, talking to Kim. He knew he shouldn’t eavesdrop, but…

“…and I don’t think this is working, I mean, he didn’t even care!”

“I know, right? Though at least your brother got to be a celebrity because of it.”

“Yeah, true. But dad won’t be happy about that. He hates Jalil. And he only doesn’t hate me because he thinks that everything I am right now is a _phase_. That I’ll grow out of being an aro ace tomboy brat and be the normal daughter he always wanted. Which, to be fair, I might. I’m just 15, I’m honestly not sure of anything yet. But like… what if I _don’t_ change? Then what? Is he gonna hate me, just like he hates Jalil? Is his love conditional? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure it is.”

“Aw man, that sucks…”

“Yeah! And I wish I could know that there’s _someone_ in my family who’ll accept me no matter what! But they won’t. They’re nice to me on the assumption that I’ll end up just like them. And that is so bloody stressful. Makes me want to hang-glide off the Eiffel Tower for real. At least you accept me, Kim, so thank you for that…”

“Hey, it’s no problem! And thanks again for your help with… that other thing…”

Other thing? What other thing? Jalil couldn’t help being suspicious. He carried on walking towards them, pretending he hadn’t heard anything. They quickly stopped talking when they saw him. He walked past and into the house.

Hmm… he decided that as soon as that Kim guy was gone, he would go and reassure Alix. She had sounded like she needed reassurance. She wanted at least one family member who accepted her as she was, right? Well Jalil certainly did! He was proud of her for having the courage to be herself. It was something he often didn’t feel brave enough to do. She was an awesome little sister, and he should probably make that clearer to her.

And then she might trust him with the truth. She was definitely hiding something.

“Jalil? Is that you? Could you come in here for a moment, please?”

Ugh, that was his dad’s voice, and he did not sound happy. Jalil went into the room and braced himself for a telling-off. Sure enough, that was what he got.

“I told you not to go interfering with Alix’s plans! And now look what’s happened!”

“I’ve become famous in a viral video and discovered I have a natural affinity for hang-gliding?” Jalil muttered under his breath.

“You are forbidden from hang-gliding ever again!”

“But dad! What about the competition? I said I would enter!”

“No, I won’t have you doing that. It’s far too dangerous and irresponsible. The only reason you didn’t die today was luck.”

“What? That’s not true! I’m _good_ at hang-gliding!”

“No entering the competition, and that is final.”

“You would let Alix enter if it was her doing the hang-gliding…”

“Alix is naturally sporty and athletic. She is far more suited for such strenuous activities. Now stop being foolish and go do those chores you were supposed to do earlier on.”

“This is so unfair!”

Jalil stormed out of the room, only to run straight into Alix. It seemed she had been listening right outside the door. That made Jalil feel a little less bad for eavesdropping on her earlier.

“Dude,” she said. “We have to get dad to let you enter that competition.”

“But how?”

“I’ll ask him. Hang on a minute.”

“No wait, that won’t work–”

It was too late. She had already gone into the room.

“Hey dad! Did you see that awesome video of Jalil hang-gliding today? Wasn’t it cool? Aren’t you so excited for him to enter that competition and like… bring honour to our family and stuff?”

Their father sighed. “Nice try, Alix. But entering that competition is too irresponsible for Jalil.”

“Yeah, okay. Keep using that lame excuse, that’s fine. Meanwhile me and Kim are gonna go tightrope walking over the Seine, hope that’s okay.”

“Yes, just wear life jackets, alright?”

“Are you kidding me?”

Alix just wheeled around and walked out of the room again, shutting the door rather forcefully behind her.

“I tried,” she said.

“You’re not really going tightrope walking over the Seine, are you?” Jalil asked her.

“No, of course not! I’m not a complete idiot!” She suddenly grinned. “Though imagine if you did, and you turned out to be really good at tightrope walking too…”

“I think I’ll stick to hang-gliding, thanks. Speaking of which, I guess I won’t be able to do it anymore…”

“What? No! Of course you can still go hang-gliding! Just… just give me a moment.”

For a few seconds she just stared at the wall, lost in thought. Then her face lit up.

“I have an idea! I know how to get dad to let you enter the competition! He says it would be too irresponsible of you, right?”

“Yes…”

“Aha! I know what to do! You don’t worry about a thing, okay? I’ll sort it out! Oh, I’ve so gotta tell Kim…”

She ran off without even telling him what this mysterious plan was. Why did she keep hiding things these days? And what did Kim have to do with it?

 

 

 

Kim had already left, and when Alix called him up he happened to be right in the middle of a date with Max.

“Can’t this wait until later?” he asked.

“No, not really,” she said. “Jalil needs my help. And to help him, I need your help.”

“Oh, you should have said so before! I’d do anything to help the world’s coolest hang-glider!”

“Well our dad won’t let him enter the competition because he thinks Jalil is too irresponsible. We’ve got three weeks to change his mind.”

“And how are we going to do that?”

“By changing dad’s favourite sibling back to Jalil. In other words, I have to be so irresponsible that dad has no choice but to realize that Jalil is way more responsible in comparison.”

“I see several problems with this plan,” came the sound of Max’s voice through the phone.

“Shut up, nerd.”

“Hey!” said Kim. “Don’t tell my boyfriend to shut up!”

“It’s a _meme_ , Kim. Anyway I know this plan is stupid and idiotic. But that’s the point! I’m supposed to be idiotic! And compared with Jalil I am definitely an irresponsible idiot. I just need dad to be able to see that. And therefore I need the help of the only person I know who is more irresponsible than me.”

“Marinette,” Kim guessed.

“No, you moron! It’s you!”

“Oh, right…”

“So this ridiculous fake relationship that’s fooling almost no one is going to have to get even more ridiculous, somehow.”

“I can do that. I’m a pro at being ridiculous.”

Alix could hear Max giggling in the background. He was probably finding this way too amusing from the outside. Lucky him.

“Come over as soon as possible,” she said. “I’ve got some ideas.”

“Can we have a sleepover?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“And a pillow fight?”

“Heck yeah!”

“Awesome! I’ll be there soon! But first let me finish this date with the cutest, most amazing guy in the world.”

“Adrien?” Alix said, trying to hold back her laughter.

“Alix Kubdel, I swear to god–”

She laughed and hung up before he could say anything else.

A sleepover, huh? That would be so awesome. Pillow fights, video games, watching really bad movies just to laugh at them, playing truth or dare… Having a friend for once was so much fun.

 

 

“Hey dad, do you have a mask and a fake gun? Not for any dodgy reasons or anything… and especially not because Kim said that the bank nearby has a lot of tempting money…”

Jalil was not sure he had heard correctly. Was Alix really implying that she was going to _commit a robbery?_ Of course she was probably just joking again, but… why?

“There’s a bubble gun in the drawer,” their father said, not even looking up from the newspaper he was reading.

“Oh, okay… and Kim’s coming over later today.”

“Mm.”

“For a sleepover.”

“Good. Have fun.”

“A sleepover. A guy. Staying here for the night. In the same room as me. A guy I am definitely 100% dating. Sleeping over. With me.”

“Yes yes, I trust you, be safe and all that…”

Alix rolled her eyes. “And there might end up being a lot of bags of stuff in the spare room. That stuff is definitely not stolen money or dead bodies. And if the police ask, you don’t know me.”

“Right.”

“So I’m going now. To the bank. With this bubble gun. And I’m meeting Kim there too. And I’ll bring him back here later. Into my bedroom with me.”

“Okay, see you later.”

Jalil just stared at the quiet madness unfolding before him. How was this possible? Did parental favouritism really go this far? One sibling was allowed to sell drugs, jump off a landmark, tightrope walk across the river, rob a bank, possibly commit murder, and recklessly sleep with someone, while the other wasn’t even allowed to partake in a hobby that the whole country was supporting?

Alix seemed equally as unimpressed. She marched off with her arms folded.

Meanwhile Jalil looked back down at his phone, watching his viral video again on the Ladyblog. It already had millions of hits. And it was no wonder. He looked _fantastic!_ Soaring through the sky like there was no easier thing in the world! And the more he watched it, the more he missed it. He wanted that feeling again. That feeling of being free.

Well, his dad hadn’t taken away the glider. So perhaps in the middle of the night, when everyone was asleep, Jalil could just take the glider outside and…

His phone bleeped with a new message. He checked it to see that it was from–

No. No way. It couldn’t be. Not the real one. But there was the little blue tick beside the name, signifying that this was the real one indeed.

He had just received a message from the one and only Ladybug.

_I love your video! Say, is it possible that Chat Noir and I could watch you fly in person sometime? It might have to be at night time though, since we’re pretty busy with civilian stuff during the day. Let me know! ~Ladybug_

Whoa! Ladybug and Chat Noir themselves, the saviours of Paris, wanted to see him fly! That was the most inspiring thing ever!

In that case he would do it. Tonight he would sneak out with his hang-glider and go show those superheroes his skills. Whether his father allowed him to or not.

 

 

 

“This is a stick-up! Give us €500 or else!”

Kim used the bubble gun to blow a few bubbles. The bank clerk, trying not to laugh, handed over some Monopoly money.

“I hope this will be satisfactory.”

Kim handed the money to Alix, who counted it. Yep – €500 exactly.

“Thank you,” said Kim. He turned to Alix. “Now what? Your dad is not exactly gonna be fooled into thinking we actually robbed a bank.”

“I know,” she sighed. “We’ve gotta up our game.”

“So is our next stop murder?”

“Maybe. I mean, technically I’ve already committed murder.”

“What? When?”

She tried not to sound too bitter. “Timebreaker.”

“Oh yeah, that…”

“But it’s okay. We’ve still got three weeks to go. My dad can’t ignore the stupidness for that long.”

“Does he know I’m coming over for a sleepover?”

“Yep. I tried to get him to object to that. Turns out he doesn’t care.” She silently wondered if he would care if she got fake-pregnant after this sleepover, but decided that was getting a little too weird. “Anyway, let’s go home. I’ve got a Nintendo Switch in my room so you can have a go on that if you want.”

Kim gasped. “Do you have ARMS?”

“Yeah, I love that game.”

“Nice! I’ve always wanted to play that! Spring Man is so cool, I think I’d marry him on the spot…”

“Kim, I can’t believe you’d cheat on Max with a fictional character.”

“Oh come on! Even Max would marry Spring Man!”

“Did you know there’s a character in ARMS called Max?”

“Well he can’t be as cool as my Max, that’s for sure.”

“Um excuse me,” said the bank clerk, “the bank is closing in two minutes so…”

“Ah okay, we’re getting out of here, don’t worry. Come on Alix, let’s go play ARMS!” He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her along behind him, leaving a trail of bubbles from the bubble gun along the way.

 

When they got home it was already quite late. They deposited their “stolen money” in the spare room, then had a quick dinner.

“Did you have a good day?” her father asked.

“Yeah, it was great,” Alix replied. “We totally _stole_ the show.”

“I bet they weren’t _banking_ on that,” Kim added.

“Well at least you were being productive,” Mr Kubdel said, though he seemed to be frowning a little. Finally! Was he starting to have second thoughts about letting one of his kids have complete free reign while the other had no authority at all? Alix decided to take the chance and run with it.

“In fact,” she said, “we’d have even more money if Jalil won that hang-gliding competition…”

“That’s not happening,” Mr Kubdel replied flatly, his earlier hesitance having gone completely. Well, it had been worth a shot.

“Anyway then, Kim,” Alix said, trying to sound as much as possible like Chloé talking to Adrien, “should we like… go to my bedroom now? We could always… y’know… play on my Nintendo Switch… _if you know what I mean_ …” She winked at him rather obviously.

“I can’t _wait_ to get a load of those ARMS,” Kim said, winking back. It took all of Alix’s restraint not to just burst into laughter.

“Boy, you can get these ARMS whenever you want…”

She grabbed his hand and pulled him into her room, shutting the door behind her. Then she picked up the Nintendo Switch controllers.

“So. ARMS battle?”

He nodded. “Heck yes, ARMS battle!”

 

 

 

Jalil, sitting in the next room and still watching that video over and over, had heard everything and was still confused. What the heck even was going on with Alix? What was her plan? And seriously, what did Kim have to do with it?

For that matter, from his eavesdropping the other day, Jalil knew that Alix still considered herself aro ace. Then why was she dating Kim? Did she really consider him so cool that she would be okay with doing that? As far as Jalil knew, Alix and Kim hadn’t even been friends. Something was definitely up.

He went over to Alix’s door and stood there outside, not actively trying to listen, but still hearing things all the same.

“…ha! Take that, Spring Man!”

“Oh but that’s not fair, I don’t wanna hit Ribbon Girl… she’s so cute… she’s my waifu now…”

“Hey, I thought I was your waifu!”

“Ribbon Girl is my new waifu.”

“So you’re cheating on your actual bae, first with Spring Man and now with Ribbon Girl? Why do you like people with springy arms so much? Kim, I’m kinkshaming…”

They were… actually playing ARMS? Jalil didn’t want to hear anymore. He walked away from the door whispering, “What the hell?” to himself.

That was when he got the phone call.

It was an unknown number. Okay, that was dodgy. But maybe it was Ladybug or something! He picked up. “Hello?”

“So. Jalil Kubdel, hang-glider extraordinaire. We meet again.”

The voice was all too familiar to him. He gritted his teeth. “Theo.”

“Yes, I’m glad you remember me. But then again, of course you would. We’ve shared a lot of memories together, haven’t we?”

Stupid school memories. Theo beating him out in every subject, no matter how hard he tried. Theo being good at everything. Theo landing every job he applied for. Theo being the most annoyingly perfect guy in every possible way. And Theo being _straight_.

Oh yes, they had shared a lot of memories together. Memories of “just experimenting”. Memories of “it never meant anything to me”. Memories of “I’m not gay, it was his idea, not mine!” Memories of Theo outing him to his entire class, just to save his own skin.

Stupid, annoying memories.

“I hear a silence on the other end,” Theo continued, in that annoying suck-up voice of his. “I didn’t cause an angsty flashback with my words, did I?”

Jalil cleared his throat. “No, I was just busy doing something that’s more important than talking to you.”

“I’m sure you were. Anyway, I just called to wish my fellow hang-gliding competitor good luck.”

“What?”

“Oh, didn’t you know? I’ll be participating in the competition too. I’m sure it’ll be a lot of fun.”

Jalil tried to clear his throat again, though it wasn’t blocked. “Well, I’m not totally sure if I’ll do the competition or not…”

“Backing out now, are we? Pity. And to think I expected better from you.”

It made his blood boil to hear Theo say that. “Actually, I will definitely be doing the competition! And I’ll definitely be winning!”

“Oh really? I look forward to it. This will be a good match.”

“Yes. It will be.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

“Me too.”

Jalil hung up, trying to ignore the weird blend of emotions that were welling up inside. Time to go get his hang-glider and meet Ladybug and Chat Noir.

 

 

Meanwhile, somewhere else in Paris, Theo put his phone down and sighed.

“Well done,” said the tall man standing beside him. “You did a good job. But you could have sounded a little more threatening.”

“But dad,” Theo said. “I told you, I don’t want to make Jalil my rival again. All that stuff that happened between us… that was years ago! I had kind of wanted to move on!”

“But do you really want Jail taking all the money and glory? When it could be mine? I mean ours? I know you have it in you to be a better hang-glider than he is. You’ve always been better than him at everything.”

_Except at being a decent human being,_ Theo thought silently. He stared up at the night sky above him, wishing he could feel as comfortable flying up there as Jalil seemed to be.


	3. Jalil hang-glides at night, almost dying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to my awesome little brother (who I know is reading this). Happy birthday, dude! :D

Jalil got his hang-glider, then crept very quietly past the room where his dad was, and towards the exit. Along the way he managed to catch a little more of his foolish sister’s conversations through her bedroom door.

“…you call that pillow fighting? A snail could fight better than you!”

“Yeah well… a… a chicken could fight better than you!”

“Have you ever met a chicken? Those things are lethal.”

“Stop trying to distract me!”

A pillow fight? How old were they again? 5 year olds? Jalil shook his head and carried on going. He managed to make it outside without being caught. Now to go to the Eiffel Tower.

Sure enough, when he got to the top of it, Ladybug and Chat Noir were already waiting there for him.

“Hi Jalil!” Ladybug said, waving brightly, while Chat Noir came over and started wringing his hand enthusiastically. “We’ve so been looking forward to meeting you properly!”

“Your hang-gliding stuff is awesome!” Chat Noir said. “You’ve really been inspiring people, you know? Hang-glider sales have gone up 150% just over the course of today.”

“Anyway, we would love to see you fly! Is that okay?”

Jalil nodded, feeling a little overwhelmed at how much these actual, heroic celebrities seemed to be impressed with him. He unfolded his glider and then soared off the top of the Eiffel Tower again.

This time everything was different. Now that it was night, Paris was illuminated with millions of dots of light, stretching off into the distance. The moon cast an ethereal glow over the city. It was even more magical. Jalil did some of the stunts he had done last time, finding it a lot easier now that he knew what he was doing. It was just as fun and exhilarating as it had been the first time. Ladybug and Chat Noir kept up with him by leaping over the rooftops beneath him. The cool night breeze was so refreshing.

Wait a second… what was that strange shape in the distance? It can’t have been a low cloud, low clouds didn’t look like that… or move that fast… or rush towards him at that speed, so fast he couldn’t move out of the way–

THWACK!

He hit the fast-moving thing and immediately started spiralling downwards at top speed. The next thing he knew, Ladybug had wrapped her yoyo string around him and brought him down to the ground safely. It looked like Chat Noir was using his baton to safely bring down whatever Jalil had just crashed into.

Except it wasn’t a something. It was a someone.

“ALYA?” Ladybug screeched, running over to her. “Oh my god, what are you doing? You could have been hurt!”

“I’m fine too, by the way,” Jalil said. Ladybug was still preoccupied with Alya, though.

“Where did you get a hang-glider from? I’m so glad you were wearing a helmet, but still… oh Alya, at night? Really?”

“I wanted to have a go!” Alya said, grinning, unravelling herself from her own hang-glider. “I went and bought one earlier. But I had to wait for Ella and Etta to be asleep before I tried it out. I don’t want them copying me.” She suddenly pointed at Jalil. “You inspired me! I want to be a hang-glider too now!”

He was inspiring people? Legitimately, actually, inspiring people? It hadn’t really registered until now.

“This is so cool,” he mumbled, not even sure how to take it.

“People are looking up to you!” Alya continued. “Quite literally! You’re the underdog story everyone believes in. The guy who never knew he could be a hang-glider, who realizes his talent and true potential, and takes down all the snobby elitist bigwigs who think you’re not good enough for them.”

“Really? This is amazing!”

“Did you really not know?”

“I didn’t want to read the comments on the video in case they were bad…”

“But still,” Ladybug said, “we need a way for you to fly safely at night without crashing into other people. If Chat and I weren’t here, you and Alya could have been hurt.”

“It’s easy!” Chat said, balancing his baton on the end of his finger like a dorky little kid. “Put a light on your gliders. Like car headlights.”

“Good idea!” Alya said. “We could even use it as a message system, flashing light messages in Morse Code, how awesome would that be?”

“That would be good,” said Ladybug. “But yes. Until you have a light on your gliders, neither of you is flying at night again. Though I have to say, Jalil, you were doing such a great job! That was incredible, really, it was!”

“I can’t wait to see what you’ll do in the competition!” Alya said, almost jumping up and down in her enthusiasm.

Oh yes… the competition… the one which he still wasn’t allowed to enter. Hopefully Alix was still working on that plan of hers, whatever it was.

“Yep, I’ll definitely be entering that competition for sure!” he said, trying to sound equally as enthusiastic.

“And now to get you home safely,” Ladybug said rather firmly, taking Alya’s arm in her grip. “Paris isn’t exactly the safest place this late at night. Chat Noir, you make sure Jalil gets home fine. We’ll meet up again back here afterwards.”

Chat Noir gave her a rather theatrical bow. “I look forward to seeing you again soon, my lady!”

Ladybug just chuckled, then she and Alya walked off, carrying Alya’s new hang-glider with them. Jalil too began walking home, with Chat Noir by his side wielding his baton like a sword.

“So do you think I could hang-glide too?” Chat asked.

“Sure, if you want…”

“Nice! But wait – how many pigeons are there usually?”

“A lot during the daytime.”

“Aww dang…” He rubbed his nose. “I’m allergic to feathers.”

“Then I guess you’d have to just hang-glide at night.”

“Yeah… Hey! Are you going to be a professional hang-glider now? Or are you still going to be doing museum stuff?”

Jalil didn’t reply immediately. He hadn’t really thought about that yet. He loved studying ancient history, that was for sure. It was so interesting. Okay, so part of his motivation to pursue it as a career had been because he thought maybe it would make his dad proud of him. But he did love it.

But now he loved hang-gliding too. Equally, if not more. And it was making the whole country proud.

“I could just do both somehow,” he said finally.

“Yeah, that’s the spirit!”

It wasn’t long before they reached home, and Chat Noir ran off again to go meet up with Ladybug. Jalil sneaked back into the house, hid his glider away safely, then went back into his room.

He hadn’t been caught. Phew.

Now how to put a light on his glider? He could always go back to the shop and get it done, but that would probably be expensive. He’d already spent most of his saved-up money buying the glider in the first place, and his rich father was certainly not about to loan some more money to him.

What if he robbed a…

No! Why was he thinking that? The stupidity of his little sister and her “boyfriend” was infecting his brain. Robbing a bank was completely out of the question.

Well, he’d just have to find someone to fix the light for him. But who?

Uh-oh. He knew one person who could do it. But it was the absolute last person he wanted to talk to.

But what other choice did he have?

He would have to go talk to Theo.

 

 

The next morning he went to that cursed place. Theo’s workshop. Ugh, it looked hideous from the outside. Like an old garage, falling to pieces.

He loitered outside for a bit, wondering if he should even go ahead with this or not. It was stupid. There had to be other people who could do this for him! But he didn’t know any. And at least Theo would do it for cheap. That guy would do any job for a bit of money.

Theo himself appeared outside so suddenly, almost like he had teleported there. “Jalil? What are you doing here?”

“I need a headlight on this glider so I can fly at night,” Jalil said, holding out the glider and not looking at him. Theo took the glider.

“You’re… asking _me_ for help?”

“Yes.” Best to just leave it at that.

“Oh… okay…” Theo sounded surprised, and without the usual smugness in his voice. “I’ll… I’ll do that then. You can come pick this up again later.”

“Wait, you’re actually going to help me?”

Theo just glared at him. “Well you asked me to, didn’t you?”

“Yes, but…”

“If you expected me to say no then why did you ask in the first place?” He sighed. “Just get out of here, Jalil. Before I change my mind.”

And there was the annoying Theo that Jalil remembered. He walked off briskly, wondering if leaving his precious glider in the hands of a guy like this was even a good idea.

 

Theo himself was wondering the same thing, as he brought the glider into his workshop to start fixing the light onto it.

“This is your opportunity to sabotage your opponent!” his father said, having listened in on the conversation from inside. “Mess up the glider so that he can’t fly!”

“But he would know it was me,” Theo said. “I don’t want to sabotage him. Can’t we just let him compete in the competition fairly, without trying to get the better of him for once?”

“And let him win? No way! He’s already rich. But you – you need that prize money. Okay, so don’t sabotage the glider right now. But do it later, nearer the competition. That way he can fail while everyone watches him. And then they’ll all be watching you win.”

Theo didn’t say anything. He was not looking forward to the competition. And he was certainly not keen on endangering Jalil, just to have a better chance of winning. But what could he do about it?

 

 

Jalil returned back home just as that Kim kid was leaving. Good riddance. That drug-smuggling, bank-robbing, panther-challenging idiot just managed to annoy him somehow. Even if the drug-smuggling and bank-robbing parts weren’t exactly true. For a few moments Jalil wondered if he was just being too overprotective – Alix hadn’t actually done anything wrong, had she?

Or had she…?

“Oh there you are Jalil,” she said as she saw him, waving and stifling a yawn. “How do you always wake up so early? It’s like… 5AM…”

“It’s noon actually, and I sleep at sensible hours rather than staying up late doing who knows what with some ridiculous fool.”

She shrugged. “I’m allowed to have a sleepover, aren’t I?”

“That depends entirely on what you were doing at said sleepover. If I find any dead bodies in the spare room I’m disowning you.”

“Relax, Jalil. We just played video games. And had a rather violent pillow fight. And a Nerf gun battle. And also watched Mean Girls. And there was arm-wrestling. But no dead bodies, I promise.”

What? But that was just… a totally normal, platonic sleepover? Weren’t those two supposed to be dating? Last night, from what they had been saying, hadn’t they been implying… something a lot _less_ platonic…?

The confusion must have shown on his face, because she rolled her eyes and snapped, “Alright fine then, me and him got super drunk and high and set fire to a building and beat someone up and did it under a bridge – what the hell do you want me to say?! I already told you, we were joking about all the stupid stuff! I was just saying it to try to get dad to actually listen for once! I didn’t mean for you to take it seriously! Kim may be an idiot, but he’s a good person! He’s not gonna go robbing banks, or – or beating people up – or –”

Alright, he believed her, the sleepover had been tamer than he had anticipated. But still, something was not adding up. She was definitely still hiding things. He could tell.

Taking a deep breath, he said, “You know, Alix… sometimes when an older sibling is questioning a younger sibling, it’s not because they’re being bossy or anything like that… it’s because they care about their younger sibling. And they’re worried. And they don’t want anyone to get hurt, since they know the younger sibling can sometimes be a little… impulsive. They just want to know the truth, so that everything can be okay.”

“Yeah, that’s fair enough. But like… sometimes, the younger sibling really trusts their older sibling, and really _wants_ to tell them the truth because their older sibling is their greatest friend and one of the few people they actually care about, but… they can’t. Because someone else has entrusted them with a secret, and they really, really don’t wanna break their trust. They have to keep this secret hidden, even from the older sibling. But it’s not a bad secret or anything. And the older sibling has nothing to worry about.”

Aha, so she really was hiding something! But what was it? She said it wasn’t a bad thing and that he had nothing to worry about, but did he really trust the judgement of someone like her?

She was looking up at him almost worried, like she didn’t think he was going to listen to her. Because no one else ever did. _Especially_ not family.

The poor thing – of course he had to trust her! She was his little sister, and the best little sister ever.

“It’s okay, the older sibling understands.” He smiled and ruffled her hair up. “You go ahead and keep your friend’s secret.”

She smiled too now, relieved. “Yeah, I will. I think I’m finally getting the hang of the friendship thing.”

“Well you’ve always been good at being friends with me!”

“You don’t count, you’re my brother!”

“Being related doesn’t mean anything. Family members can still hate you.”

“Oh yeah, true…” She frowned. “Speaking of which, we still have to get dad to let you enter than competition. I guess I may as well tell you the plan now: I was trying to prove myself as irresponsible as possible so that you would be his favourite child again, and then he’d let you.”

“Alix, that is a terrible plan.”

“Shut up, nerd. It’s a fantastic plan and also really funny. And then that way dad will finally get sick of Kim and I’ll be able to–”

She stopped suddenly.

“Uh… nothing. Forget that last bit. Anyway, yeah. Me being irresponsible. As usual. That’s the plan.”

“Well, I suppose it’s better than nothing,” Jalil admitted. “And if all else fails, I can just go enter the competition anyway and deal with the consequences later. I’m an adult, I can make my own decisions.”

“Yeah, exactly! The whole country’s supporting you, even if your family isn’t. And for the record, I’m always gonna be supporting you. You’re the coolest.”

He tried not to tear up. It meant so much to him that his little sister, one of the coolest skater punks around, thought that he was cool too.

“Thank you,” he said. “And I will always be supporting you, too. Even if everyone else doesn’t.”

She gave him a hug. “Thanks Jalil.”

“No problem.”

“Anyway, I’ve gotta go play some more ARMS. Kim is better than me, can you believe it? Even though he’d never played it before? It’s so unfair! I have to beat him! You wanna play too and help me practise?”

It had been a long time since he had played video games with Alix. Usually his coursework and studying would drain all his time and energy. But he had nothing better to do right now, while waiting for Theo to finish work on his glider, so why not?

“Yeah, that sounds like fun!”

“Awesome! Let’s go!”


	4. Jalil hang-glides and there's lava

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is also dedicated to my smol brother because today is his ACTUAL birthday so yeah. Sibling fluff ahoy!!

“So you’re writing a book about Jalil’s hang-gliding adventures and you want my help,” Max said. Kim, sitting beside him with a laptop open on the table, nodded.

“If I write it now, while hang-gliding is the biggest craze, I’ll get loads of money and I’ll be rich and famous. And you’re the awesomest person to help me because you’re so smart, you’d be so good at writing a book!”

Max blushed. “Oh Kim, that’s such an honour! I would love to help you out!”

“Thanks! Here, let me show you what I’ve done so far…”

He opened up a document named ‘Untitled’ and waited for it to load. This laptop was annoyingly slow. Finally the page opened - mostly blank, but with a multicoloured and highly decorated Word Art ‘The’ in the top left corner.

“Yeah, I haven’t done much so far,” Kim admitted. “It’s hard to know what to write without knowing what it’s like to go hang-gliding, and I don’t have enough pocket money to buy a glider.”

“Why don’t you call up Jalil and ask him for his experiences?” Max suggested.

“Yeah, that’s an awesome idea! Thanks Max!” Kim fumbled around in his pocket for his phone. Then his face paled. “Hey, where’s my phone gone? I had it just earlier!”

“Did you drop it somewhere?”

“No, I can’t have, I… I… uh-oh. I know where it is.”

“Where?”

“Earlier I went to the Dupain-Cheng Bakery to get some snacks. And it was Marinette at the counter.”

“Oh.” Realization dawned on Max’s face. “That makes sense now…”

“I can’t believe she stole my phone _again!_ ”

Max just shook his head. “She has a habit of it, doesn’t she?”

“I know, right? Ugh… well, I suppose we’ll have to go back there and get it. It can be like a date!”

“And procrastinate more on this book of ours?” Max asked, chuckling a little.

“Writing is hard, okay? But with your help it’ll be way easier.”

“I certainly hope so. Yes – let’s go back to the bakery and get your phone, and hope she doesn’t steal mine while we’re there!”

Kim closed the laptop, and off they went.

 

An hour and many snacks later, with Kim’s phone again, they resumed their work. Kim gave a call to Alix since he didn’t have Jalil’s number.

“Dude, I was in the middle of an ARMS battle!” she snapped.

“Well how was I supposed to know that? If you’re allowed to interrupt me in the middle of dates with Max then I’m allowed to interrupt you when you’re playing on your beloved Switch. Anyway, I don’t want to talk to you. I want to talk to your brother.”

“Alright, fine then, you traitor. Here you go.” She passed the phone onto Jalil.

“Kim, I was also in the middle of an ARMS battle, what do you want? I’m not interested in buying any drugs.”

“That was just a joke!” Kim said hastily. “Anyway, I’m writing a book about your hang-gliding fame with some help from Max – my friend, by the way, my totally platonic friend, like yeah he’s a boy but he’s not my _boyfriend_ , just my friend, my bro–”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“So yeah. I wanted to ask you some questions about your story so I can write an articulate book about it.”

“An accurate book,” Max whispered at him.

“I meant accurate book,” Kim said. “Yeah. That.”

“Go ahead, ask away,” Jalil said, sounding bored.

“So why did you start hang-gliding in the first place?”

“I think you know perfectly well why.”

“Oh, yeah… and how were you so good at it?”

“I have no idea.”

“Okay. And how does it feel to go hang-gliding?”

“Why don’t you and your totally platonic friend Max go jump off the Eiffel Tower and find out for yourselves?”

This was getting nowhere. Jalil was clearly not very happy to be talking to him. Never mind – books didn’t have to be accurate anyway. It could just be _based on_ a true story, with some details made up. Yeah, that would be better.

“Thank you for your help, I think I’ve got everything I need,” said Kim.

“Good. I’ve got better things to get back to doing now. Like making sure my sister is not robbing banks or selling drugs.”

“You do realize we weren’t actually doing any of that stuff, right?”

“And you do realize that you’re not fooling me about Max being just your platonic friend, right?”

“W-what? Noooo, me and Max are just friends! I… I have to go… It was good talking to you, have fun, bye!” He hung up quickly and then turned to Max, his eyes full of fear. “He knows.”

Max shrugged. “Hopefully he won’t tell anyone.”

“Yeah… hopefully…”

 

Meanwhile, Jalil gave Alix’s phone back to her and said, “I really have to ask you something.”

“Sure, ask away.”

“Kim’s not really your boyfriend, is he? You’re just pretending so that no one will realize he’s dating Max.”

He watched the colour drain from her face, feeling proud that he’d finally figured it out.

“Yeah, fine,” she said quietly. “But don’t tell anyone. Kim doesn’t want anyone knowing.”

“He’s doing a bad job at hiding it.”

“I know he is, but he’s trying!”

“Good. You know, I’m actually pretty relieved. I knew something was up, right from the beginning. I hoped you weren’t doing anything wrong. But you weren’t – you were just keeping his secret, and you were right, it’s nothing bad.”

She smiled. “Yeah. I guess it’s good to not need to hide it from you anymore. To be honest, pretending to be his girlfriend is getting kinda boring.”

“Hasn’t it only been about two days?”

“Yeah, but still.”

“So what is he, then? Your friend?”

She smiled even more. “My _best_ friend.”

“Whoa, you have a best friend now? That’s fantastic! I’m so happy for you!”

“Well, he’s one of my best friends anyway. The other is you.” She gave him a mini punch in the arm, which he returned.

“Aww, that’s very kind of you.”

“So should we carry on playing ARMS?”

Jalil looked at his watch. “You carry on by yourself, I think I’ll go get my glider back from Theo now. He’s fixing a headlight onto it.”

“Theo? Isn’t that the guy you used to hate? I know I was little but I remember you coming back from school every day and complaining about what a goody two shoes he was…”

“Yeah, it’s him. Which is why I’d rather go get my glider back sooner rather than later.”

“Fair enough. See you later, then. In fact, maybe I’ll go meet up with Kim and Max and actually give them some help with their book, since you won’t.”

She turned off the game console and then ran out of the room down the corridor, yelling, “Dad, I’m going out today! I’m gonna go steal a screwdriver and then me and Kim are gonna hack into the Paris metro system and reroute the trains through the abandoned stations…”

Jalil chuckled to himself as her voice faded away. Was she really trying to trade away her coveted “favourite sibling” spot, just to help him? He had always been grateful that there was very little rivalry between them, unlike many other siblings, but this was on another level entirely. She really was the best sister ever.

He walked out of the room too, only to suddenly be called by his father.

“Jalil, can you come here please?”

Ugh, what now? He went into the living room. “Hi dad.”

“Where are you going?”

“Oh, uh, just to meet up with someone…”

“Well could you just… keep an eye on Alix?”

“What? Why?”

His father looked slightly uncomfortable. “I just feel like she might be, er, getting into a bit of trouble lately.”

“Oh, a _bit_ of trouble? Robbing banks and hacking the metro counts as a _bit_ of trouble?”

He sighed. “Listen, I just want her to be happy, and I don’t want to go interfering in her life. But I don’t want her to mess it up either…”

Ah, so her plan was actually starting to work? Their dad was actually beginning to pay attention? This was good! This was very good indeed!

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye on her,” Jalil lied, knowing perfectly well that he wouldn’t need to.

“Excellent! Thank you, Jalil.”

Jalil nodded, then hurried off.

 

Not too long later he found himself standing outside Theo’s workshop again. This place still felt like the worst place ever. He would just get his glider and leave.

“Here you go,” Theo said, thrusting the glider into Jalil’s hands. “You pull on that string to turn the light on, the pull it again to turn it off. Simple enough for even you to get the hang of.”

Jalil tested it out – sure enough, it worked fine.

“How much money do I owe you?” he asked, a little reluctantly.

“Uh… none.”

“What?”

“You don’t have to pay me.”

Had Jalil heard correctly? He had been expecting Theo to attempt to charge some exorbitant fee, not stand there shuffling on his feet and looking at the ground with his arms crossed.

“But… why?”

“I don’t want any of your stupid money!” Theo snapped, his face reddening. “Just _go_.”

Was this really happening? Well, Jalil was not going to stick around. He turned and marched off before Theo could change his mind.

Seriously, what had all that been about? Why didn’t Theo want any money for his services? Was it an attempt at a gesture of kindness? Or did he really hate Jalil so much that the thought of accepting money from him was too much?

 

Theo stood there for several seconds, still looking at the floor, not moving. His father was not going to be happy about this. But how could he possibly charge Jalil for this, when he was already planning his demise by sabotage? No, it would be unfair. This was the least he could do. A sort of pre-emptive apology. “Sorry for when I inevitably sabotage your chances of winning the competition later, since my father wants me to!” Yeah, something like that.

It made him feel just the tiniest bit better inside. Being a decent person did feel a lot nicer than being a jerk. He just wished he could do it more often.

 

 

The next few weeks seemed to pass in a blur. By day, Jalil stayed safely on the ground like he was supposed to – merely watching the hang-gliding antics of all the people he was inspiring as they took to the air, decorating the Parisian skies with their courage. But by night, Jalil would secretly be out on the rooftops, sailing through the stars, the heroes of the city by his side to train him the best they could and make sure he was okay.

Theo’s light worked magnificently. Jalil used it not only as a headlight during the night, but also to pass messages in Morse Code to Ladybug and Chat Noir when he was too far away to be able to call out to them. And people would sometimes stand on the ground, watching him, pointing up at him, recording him. He would send them messages too, things along the lines of “Hello down there!” and “Thanks for your support!” People would post their videos to the Ladyblog where Alya would be doing her best to decipher the Morse Code messages. It was like some big but secret game that the whole of Paris was playing. It almost didn’t feel real.

Meanwhile, Kim, Max and Alix continued writing their book. With the three of them working together it was almost finished, despite how much they procrastinated. Alix still tried to put her plan into action, pretending to be as irresponsible as possible to get their father to notice, but it was getting harder to think of ridiculous things to say. At least he had seemed to have noticed somewhat, always telling Jalil to go keep watch over Alix and make sure she was alright. But he still had not swapped Jalil over to favourite sibling just yet.

 

One day, not too far away from the day of the competition, Jalil’s hang-gliding fame managed to capture the attention of someone quite unexpected – Hawk Moth himself, the city’s resident supervillain.

“Your name is now Magman,” he said to his newest akuma villain, some guy who was upset that his model volcano at the science contest had failed to erupt. “You will be able to create spurts of lava erupting from the ground wherever you want.”

“And I can kill people?” Magman asked, a cruel smile on his face.

“Oh yes, you certainly can kill people!”

“Especially those pesky hang-gliders everywhere?”

“Yes… well, kind of. You see, I have a little task for you, as a payment for me giving you these powers.”

“I know, I know, I have to get the miraculouses of Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“Um, actually…” Hawk Moth fiddled with his staff, hoping he would still sound vaguely evil. “I have something else in mind for once. I would like you to create a lava obstacle course. A really cool one, and difficult, but not impossible. And also don’t kill this one person in particular.”

Magman scowled. “Who?”

“Jalil Kubdel, the famous hang-glider. You see, I was thinking, he needs some excellent training to be able to win the competition. And where better to get it from than an obstacle course created by an akuma villain? It would be amazing!”

“Are you kidding?!”

“If you don’t do it, I’ll take away your powers.”

“Oh, fine!”

Magman curled his fingers into a fist, causing the floor of the science lab to buckle and break. Then out of the cracks poured hot, steaming lava. He lifted his hand up quickly, and the lava suddenly rushed out of the ground and up into the air like a geyser. Yes, this would be perfect! He could easily make an obstacle course out of these. The best obstacle course ever!

 

 

Somewhere off in a deserted alleyway, Kim was blowing bubbles with the bubble gun he had used to rob the bank. Alix on her rollerskates was whizzing around and popping as many as possible, and Max was leaning on Kim’s arm and keeping a tally of how many she managed to get. These peaceful, idyllic, summer afternoons were so fun. Making friends with Kim and Max had honestly been the best decision of her life. How had she even coped before this?

“Aaaaand our two hour break is up,” Max said, looking at his watch, though he made no move to get up. “We should probably get back to writing the book now… or not…”

“I vote not,” said Alix. “For like, another hour at least. We’ve got plenty of time.”

“Yeah,” Kim agreed. “The book’s going great so far. We can totally afford to take one day off.”

Max chuckled. “I should have known you two were going to say that. Anyway, I agree. Today just seems like the kind of day where nothing can go wrong, and everything is peaceful, and–”

Alix’s phone suddenly rang. She took a look at it. “It’s my dad, what does he want now…” She answered the call. “Hello?”

“Alix, where are you?”

She looked around. “Uh, some dodgy alleyway.”

“What are you doing? Are you alright?”

“Yeah dad, I’m fine, don’t worry. I’m, uh…” She tried to think of something irresponsible to say. “I’m just helping Kim put all this gunpowder into these barrels.”

“Gunpowder? Is that safe?”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

“And then are you coming home?”

“Maybe. Or we might go, uh, _play baseball_. Yeah. I wonder which base we’ll get to this time?”

Kim and Max were both grinning like crazy, trying not to laugh. It made Alix want to laugh too, but she kept quiet. She couldn’t ruin this now, not when the plan actually seemed to be working.

“Well come home soon,” her father said. “I hear there’s a new akuma attack. Something about lava. That won’t go well with gunpowder, or – er – _baseball_.”

“Oh come on, there are akuma attacks like every single day, Ladybug and Chat Noir will sort it out like they always do. But fine, I’ll be home soon.”

“Good. Stay safe, and I’ll see you soon.”

“Yeah. Bye dad.”

She hung up and turned to the other two, who had collapsed into giggles.

“What? Gunpowder was the first thing that came to mind! And the baseball one was pretty good, you have to admit…”

They just carried on laughing, and she couldn’t help but join in.

All of a sudden there was a roaring sound behind them. They turned to see that a huge column of lava had erupted in the distance, stretching far into the sky. And then another, and another, and another. There were lava columns popping up all over the place. Some shot through buildings, others through roads. It stopped the laughter immediately.

“We should probably get out of here,” Alix said, though she wasn’t sure exactly where they would go. Even being inside wouldn’t keep them safe from the lava.

They stood up, only to see that the end of the alleyway had been cut off a by river of lava. They were stuck.

A strange person dressed in orange and black suddenly jumped down from the sky in front of them, a twisted grin on his face. An akuma villain, obviously.

“I am Magman, the lava-bender!” he said to them. “You three are staying right here. At least until that hang-gliding big brother of yours can get through my obstacle course and rescue you. But I’m not going to make it easy for him!”

Magman held his fists up and turned them, sending all the surrounding buildings sinking into pools of lava, one by one, until there was nothing there but fields of lava stretching into the distance. The heat was almost unbearable.

“There, now you have a clear view,” Magman continued. “If Jalil wants to win the championship, first he’ll have to win _my_ championship! Hahahahahaha!”

He leapt off into the sky again, seemingly able to float on air itself, and away towards the horizon.

“What the hell is he on about?” Alix asked. “Shouldn’t he be trying to fight Ladybug and Chat Noir? What does he want with Jalil?”

Max pushed his glasses further up his nose like the nerd he was. “I’m guessing that Hawk Moth wants to see your brother win the hang-gliding competition as much as the rest of the country does, and is using this akuma as an excuse to help him train. And he’s using you as bait.”

“Bait?”

“So that Jalil cooperates.”

Alix clenched her fists. “Well that stupid Hawk Moth had better akumatize me again so I can go find him and punch his face… there are much nicer ways to support my brother’s hang-gliding career, honestly…”

“Hey, there’s Jalil!” Kim called, pointing up at the sky. Alix turned to have a look and sure enough, there Jalil was, a distant but unmistakeable speck. He was on his hang-glider, zipping between the lava columns like a slalom skier.

But wait… something was different. It looked like he was carrying something on top of his glider! But what? It was impossible to tell from here!

Magman used his powers to create more lava columns, shooting up so fast they were almost instantaneous. Jalil managed to avoid them with grace and ease. Wow – he really was a natural at hang-gliding. And all his practice had paid off. He could control the glider so well that despite Magman’s best efforts, the lava obstacle course was well and truly beaten.

As he got closer and closer, the thing he was carrying became easier to see. Not just one thing – two things! One on each side of the glider. What were they?

Magman still tried his hardest to throw Jalil off, but it was no use. The thermal heat rising from the lava wasteland was giving Jalil’s glider the energy it needed to perform tricks with much more magnificence than ever before. It truly was magic to behold!

Now Jalil was close enough to have spotted his sister and her two friends down on their little island of ground, and he began heading towards them. Nearer and nearer, until–

Those things he was carrying! Those were not things – they were people! And not just any people! Ladybug and Chat Noir themselves, riding on the top of the glider!

“That is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen,” Kim said, looking up at them in wonder. The other two just nodded in agreement.

Within a few more seconds Jalil had landed. Somehow he had done it with such skill that even with such a small landing area, he had not gone into the lava. By this time the heat was so strong that Kim had taken off his hoodie, and Max was standing by his side, looking the other way, blushing furiously. Alix herself had taken off her skates and helmet, hoping that might cool her down a bit.

Ladybug and Chat Noir leapt off the top of the glider and onto the ground.

“Jalil, that was awesome!” Ladybug said. “Now we’ll take it from here. _Lucky Charm!_ ”

She used her special power, and in return a large lava-proof surfboard was delivered into her hands. She and Chat Noir immediately jumped onto it and began chasing down Magman, surfing away into the sea of lava.

Jalil had barely put the glider aside before running forwards and hugging Alix. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“Jalil, that was the coolest thing you’ve ever done in your life,” she said. “And of course I’m fine, don’t worry. I’m Alix frickin’ Kubdel. Nothing can ever happen to me.”

“I know, but… oh, that Magman guy! He said if I didn’t do his obstacle course, he would use his lava to burn you into a crisp…”

Ouch. That did not sound pleasant. And yet that must have been the fate of hundreds of unlucky civilians in the wasteland surrounding them, at least until Ladybug reset everything.

“So you did all that for me?” she asked, trying to internally convince herself that the reason her eyes were watering was because of the heat from the lava. Definitely.

“Yeah, of course. I’m not losing my sister for anything. Even if Ladybug would bring you back. You don’t deserve a horrible death, and I will do everything I possibly can to save you. There’s no one I care about more than you – you know that, right?”

She sniffed and wiped away the tears rolling down her cheeks, still trying to tell herself it was because of the heat, the toxic fumes, anything! But she couldn’t lie to herself. She was crying because she had the bravest, awesomest, coolest brother in the whole world.

“I l-love you, Jalil,” she managed to say.

“I love you too, Alix,” he replied, ruffling her hair the way he always did. She smiled through her tears, feeling so proud of her brother. Jalil was just the best.

At that moment Ladybug must have defeated the villain, since the familiar wave of magic was washing over the world, resetting everything that had been destroyed. Within a few seconds all the lava disappeared and the buildings reappeared, leaving them standing in the alleyway again. It almost felt like a totally different place now.

“I guess we should go home now,” Alix said, mostly having stopped crying by now. She turned around to say bye to Kim and Max, only to see that they were–

Oh, _god_. They were making out.

“Glad to see someone’s playing baseball at least,” she muttered, feeling the urge to both laugh and vomit at the same time. “Come on Jalil, let’s get out of here before they get past first base…”


	5. The Paris Hang-Gliding Competition

It was late at night and Theo couldn’t sleep. The hang-gliding competition was tomorrow. In the morning, all the participants would go to the top of the KIDZ+ TV Tower where they would deposit their gliders, then have their interviews, and after that the actual competition would begin. It was an obstacle course and a race over the rooftops of Paris.

Those few moments though, during the interviews… that was when Theo was supposed to sabotage Jalil’s glider. Just slash at the wings with a knife. And then, when jumping off the top of the building, instead of flying like a bird, he would plummet like a stone…

Theo shuddered. He felt so nervous, it was like he had a fever. How could he possibly go ahead with this plan? There was no guarantee that Jalil could survive a fall from that height. And what had he even done that was bad enough to warrant Theo _murdering_ him?

No, it was too much. He couldn’t. His conscience would never let him. He would just have to tell his father that the plan was off, that he didn’t even want to do the competition in the first place. He imagined it like a cheesy teen movie in his head. _“But Theo, hang-gliding is your dream!” “No dad, it’s **your**_ _dream!”_

At that exact second, the father himself walked into the room.

“Theo, guess what I just did!” he said, running over. “After Jalil’s final training session, I snuck into the place where he hides his glider and I slashed the wings! That way you won’t have to do it tomorrow – it would have been too risky anyway.”

Theo’s heart skipped several beats. “You really sabotaged his glider?”

“Yep. Now when he jumps off that building tomorrow… SPLAT!”

Ew…

“Dad, couldn’t we have just gone with itching powder or something? This is all totally unnecessary…”

“You know how much Paris loves Jalil. If he was only temporarily inconvenienced, they would just postpone the competition until he’s better. This is the only way.”

“No, it’s not!” Theo snapped, at the end of his patience. “We didn’t have to doom him like this – I would have been perfectly happy to compete against him fairly, just like everyone else! I know you and his dad had some stupid rivalry when you were kids too, him always getting the better of you and ending up really rich and well-to-do, but why did you have to bring me and Jalil into this? We could have been friends if it wasn’t for you! And now you’ve gone and ensured his nasty death!”

“Listen here, Theo,” the father said, his voice unnervingly quiet. “It’s too late to suddenly turn all selfless and angelic. You’re too far gone. And this world is a cruel, unfair place. If you don’t fight for yourself, you’re going to end up with the short end of the stick. You lost your beloved Ladybug to Chat Noir, didn’t you? Well you’re not giving up this time. That money and glory belongs to you. Don’t let anyone else stand in your way, no matter what.”

And with those cold words, he left.

Theo could feel himself physically shaking. How could this possibly be right? How would he ever be able to live with himself if he really did this? And it wasn’t like he had a choice anymore. Jalil’s glider was already sabotaged. The poor guy already had one foot in the grave.

The thought of going to a lonely cemetery and leaving flowers on Jalil’s tombstone seemed to shock Theo into action. Right. The competition was tomorrow, mid-morning. He had to do something before then. He didn’t have the money to buy Jalil a new glider, and anyway, the shop would be closed right now.

The few moments during the interviews, when the gliders would be left unattended…

A plan was forming in his mind.

Dare he pull it off?

He was terrified. So terrified he felt like he was going to throw up. But the alternative was letting an innocent person die.

He would do it. He would do his terrifying plan. It would be one of the first times he was doing the right thing.

And maybe the last.

 

 

The next day was sunny, and the sky was so clear there was barely a cloud in sight. A slight breeze ruffled the trees. The conditions were absolutely perfect for hang-gliding.

Only one hour left until the competition. Jalil was trying to eat some breakfast, but he was so nervous that he just didn’t feel hungry. As a way to calm his nerves he kept leaning over and squishing his adorable little sister’s chubby cheeks, but for once it wasn’t helping much. The thought of an entire country rooting for him was too overwhelming.

“By the way, we’ve finished writing that book,” Alix said, just taking bits of his breakfast and eating them for him. “I’m gonna go meet Kim and Max at the publishing house in a minute to get the first copies. It’s gonna be awesome. You’ll sign mine for me, right?”

Jalil nodded, unable to speak.

“Oh, and I guess I’ll have one last attempt at trying to get dad to let you enter the competition… I can’t believe he still won’t…”

Jalil was more nervous about that than the actual hang-gliding itself. Sure, he might win the money and the fame. But what about afterwards? How mad would his dad be? What kind of awful punishment would he have to endure for breaking the rules so badly?

“I guess I won’t see you before the competition starts,” Alix said, getting up and putting on her cap. “Good luck, dude. No matter how you do, you’ve pretty much already won to me, okay? I mean, you saved me from that lava guy. That’s way more hardcore than some random competition.”

Jalil just nodded again, wondering if he was about to start crying. He wouldn’t be surprised.

“Now I’d better try and prove myself super irresponsible again, for the last time. I’ll see you later, okay?”

She gave him a hug, then skipped off out of the room. He could hear her in the corridor talking to their father.

“Oh – dad! There you are!”

“Alix, where are you off to now?”

“Nowhere important, haha… and definitely nothing illegal…”

“When will you be back?”

“I don’t know. Hey, if you get a call from the doctor’s surgery with the test results then let me know, okay?”

“What? What test results?”

“To see if I’ve got… uh… hornets. Yeah. Because Kim totally might, so… if he passed them onto me when we had our, y'know, _ARMS battle_ … he’s got loads of stuff… mumps… camelidia…”

Despite his nervousness, Jalil couldn’t help but laugh a little. Hornets? Mumps? ‘Camelidia’? It was sweet that Alix was trying her absolute best, despite not knowing what she was talking about whatsoever.

“Are you telling me you–”

“I don’t have time for this, dad, I’ve gotta go meet up with Kim and steal lunch money from small children, and uh, illegally feed pigeons, and like, take a ride on that scooter of his, okay maybe that last one had a double meaning, anyway – see you!”

“No wait, come back–”

There was the sound of a door slamming. Jalil carried on trying to eat his breakfast. His father entered the room a few seconds later.

“Jalil, this is a disaster,” he said. “I know I’ve been too lenient and now she won’t listen to me – can you please try and get some sense into her head?”

Jalil just shrugged. He was still too nervous to speak.

“She might listen to you better. I know the two of you are very close.”

“Mhm.”

“Good. And by the way… I know that the hang-gliding competition you wanted to enter is today, and I just wanted to say…”

Oh no. He was about to say that Jalil wasn’t allowed, wasn’t he? And forbid him from leaving the house until the competition was over? No – he couldn’t let that happen!

Forgetting his breakfast, Jalil just stood up and ran out of the room as fast as he could.

“Where are you going? Come back! I have to say something to you!”

But Jalil did not stop. He grabbed his glider and fled from the house, not wanting to miss his chance at winning. Forget the consequences for now. He could deal with them later. Right now only one thing mattered, and that was hang-gliding.

 

He made it to the KIDZ+ building just in time. Putting his glider down in the waiting room, he ran onto the set for his interview. He was one of the last candidates and there wasn’t much time left.

“Ah, Jalil Kubdel!” Nadja said, holding a microphone out at him. “Everyone’s been waiting to see you here! Never before has the Paris Hang-Gliding Competition been so widely viewed. There are millions of people currently watching, and the flying hasn’t even started yet. How are you feeling?”

He shrugged. “I just… I… don’t know…”

“Nervous? That’s understandable. This is your first big competition, and having so many fans must put you under a lot of pressure. But at least you have people rooting for you from all over the country.”

“Yeah, I guess… and I’ll do my best to make you proud.” He did a thumbs up at the camera.

“Anyone in particular you want to give a message to?”

“Um…” He tried to think. “Alix, I know you’re probably busy right now so you might not be watching this, but if you are, well… it’s technically your fault that I ended up hang-gliding in the first place. So thank you for changing my life so much. I’m so lucky to have a sister like you.”

“Aww, that’s very heartwarming. Your little sister must be so proud of your achievements. And is it true you used your hang-gliding skills to save her and her friends from an akuma attack earlier this week?”

“Yeah, kind of…”

“Wow, how incredible! You really are the most interesting competitor we’ve ever had. I wish you the best of luck.”

“Thanks.”

And just like that, the interview was already over. An assistant ushered him out of the room.

“The competition begins in two minutes, hurry!” she warned. “Get your glider and get up to the roof as quick as you can!”

Jalil ran back into the waiting room to see that it was mostly empty now, all the other competitors having taken their gliders and left. In fact, there was only one glider remaining there–

But wait, that wasn’t his glider! That must have been someone else’s!

“There’s been a mistake,” he said to the assistant. “Someone else must have taken my glider and left theirs behind–”

“There’s no time! Just take it! Go go go!”

Well, he didn’t have a choice. It was now or never. He took the unfamiliar glider and sprinted up the last few flights of steps up to the roof.

Everyone else was already lined up along the edge, ready to go. He had a quick scan across and–

There! That was his glider! Someone else had it!

Wait… that wasn’t just some random person. It was…

“THEO! Theo’s got my glider! You cheat, you give that back to me–”

Another assistant took Jalil by the arm and dragged him along to his starting place on the edge. “There’s no time, the competition is about to begin!”

“But he’s got my glider–”

“Then just fly with his!”

Jalil unfolded Theo’s glider, scowling. If he lost then it was all that guys fault.

A voice rang out through the announcement system. “Ready? On your marks… get set…”

He stared out at the city in front of him. Heights didn’t bother him anymore, that was for sure. There were huge zeppelins in the sky at regular intervals, showing electronics arrows on them pointing which way to go. Other obstacles were floating in the sky, big balloons that they had to fly around, buildings they had to swoop in between, bridges they had to duck under and come back up. It didn’t look anywhere near as hard as the lava obstacle course had been. But this time the whole of France was watching him.

Hopefully he wouldn’t let them down.

“Go!”

He and the rest of the competitors leapt off the top of the building and began flying. Ah yes, the familiar feel of the wind in his face, nothing but countless metres of empty air beneath him…

WHOOSH!

What was that? Jalil twisted round a little to have a look. He had been sure he had seen something out of the corner of his eye.

Sure enough, there was something falling off the top of the building, rushing towards the ground. His glider.

With Theo attached.

Jalil didn’t even think twice. He pulled in his wings and went straight into a dive, chasing after the falling glider. Usually he never dived quite this fast. It was always a lot of effort to pull up properly after a dive. But he wasn’t thinking about that at all right now. He was only thinking about catching up with the falling glider.

He soon became level with it. Theo was still clinging on for dear life, looking in terror towards the ground, which was rapidly approaching them.

“Theo!” Jalil called. “Jump!”

Theo didn’t need to be told twice. He pushed himself sideways off the glider, managing to cling onto Jalil’s feet to stop himself free-falling through the air. Jalil used all his energy to pull them out of the dive, just about making it before they hit the ground, so close that Theo’s feet almost grazed it. Jalil’s old glider crashed into the ground nearby, shattering into pieces.

It would have been a good idea to quickly stop and put Theo down before continuing the competition, but the sun reflecting off the roads was warm enough to create such strong thermal updrafts that landing right now, at such high speeds, would be a feat too risky to pay off. Looking up, Jalil saw that the other competitors had already got a huge headstart. There was no time to waste.

“Hang on, Theo, it’s going to be a wild ride!”

Leaving Theo dangling from his feet, Jalil pushed the glider up high again, back onto the course. Now to catch up.

If he had been in his own glider, without the weight of someone else slowing him down, this would have been easy. But it was certainly not easy right now. Theo’s glider was a lot more unstable and rickety, or perhaps Jalil was simply not used to it. And he had to be so much more careful carrying Theo along with him. No overly sharp turns, no flying too low above buildings or trees, no sudden movements.

This was impossible.

Slowly but surely, he began gaining on some of his competitors. He managed to overtake a few of the slower ones. That wasn’t too bad, they hadn’t been all that good at flying in the first place.

Around halfway through the course he had overtaken most of the slower competitors. Now it was just the more difficult ones left.

One he managed to overtake with a rather risky manoeuvre that involved flying too close to a building for comfort, startling the occupants inside who were watching from a window. Another he managed to overtake when they made a slip-up and bashed into a balloon. A third he overtook simply by flying directly behind them for a while, using the drafts to increase his speed.

Now there was just one person left.

The finish was in sight. It was the area just beside the Eiffel Tower, the place where he had started his hang-gliding adventures from in the first place. A crowd was waiting, all recording the final stretch on various devices.

Would he be able to make it there before his opponent?

Come on. So close now. So close. So close. So close!

He flew lower and lower to the ground, catching up with the opponent. Now they were neck-and-neck. It was down to a matter of endurance.

The crowd were all cheering wildly. In fact, they were cheering for _him_. He knew it. No matter what happened, he had managed to inspire a whole country.

The thought managed to give him the final push he needed.

He hit the floor at the finish line at full speed, tripping over and landing face-first in the ground. Theo had landed just beside him. The other competitor landed rather more gracefully, several metres away. Jalil coughed the dust away and then stood up, awaiting the final results. Had he been able to overtake the opponent in time?

A voice spoke through a megaphone from the judges table.

“And the winner of this year’s Paris Hang-Gliding Competition is… Jalil Kubdel! Congratulations!”

It took a few seconds to sink in. He had won – oh, he had _won_. All the training he had done, everything he had been working towards – it did make a difference in the end. He’d done it. His knees felt weak.

Rather shakily, not quite feeling fully awake, he walked over to the winner’s podium, where someone put a medal around his neck and handed him a cheque for a lot of money. He wasn’t even paying attention to it much. The shock of winning was still all that was on his mind.

And then he was standing within the crowd, so many people congratulating him, patting him on the back, asking him for a picture or autograph. It was like the first time he had been hang-gliding, except a thousand times more intense.

Finally his brain began to work again. He looked around, frantically searching for someone he needed to talk to–

There. Theo. He was standing towards the side, his hands in his pockets, looking at the floor.

“Theo!” Jalil said, pushing aside the crowd and running over. “What happened there? You took my glider, but then it was faulty, and…”

“It wasn’t faulty,” Theo mumbled, not looking at him. “It was sabotaged.”

“What? But how did you know?”

“Because my father was the one who sabotaged it. He wanted me to win. But – but – I couldn’t just let you die! So I took your glider instead, and…”

“And you sacrificed yourself so that I could win,” Jalil said softly, barely audible over the noisy crowd. “Oh, Theo…”

“But then you saved me! Even though it almost cost you the competition!” Theo had tears in his eyes. “Jalil, how am I ever supposed to repay you? You saved my life. You’re… a h-hero…”

“But so are you! You were going to sacrifice yourself! Huh, you’d make a good offering for that necromancy ritual actually…”

“Well I’ve always been a jerk to you, haven’t I? It was about time I did something good. And I’m sorry for the way I’ve always treated you.”

“Hey, it’s okay. Things will be different from now on.”

“Yeah. They will be.”

Jalil held out his hand. “What do you say – friends?”

Theo grabbed his hand and shook it, relieved. “I would love that. Thank you.”

Jalil smiled, then turned away to carry on signing some more autographs. This whole celebrity thing was actually getting kind of fun.

And that was when he saw his dad storming towards him, the crowd separating to let him pass.

Uh-oh.

“Dad! Oh – uh – I was just–”

His dad came to a stop in front of him. “No Jalil, listen. I need to say something.” He took a deep breath. “Today you participated in this hang-gliding competition, won it, and also saved someone’s life. I am _extremely_ proud of you.”

Wait…

Proud…?

“You’re proud of me?” Jalil asked, starting to feel unreal again.

“Yes, proud. I was trying to tell you this morning actually. If hang-gliding makes you happy, then you should do it. You are, for the most part, very responsible about it. So congratulations on winning this competition. You deserve it.”

Jalil very rarely hugged his father, but now he just went for it. Proud!!! He had been waiting years to hear that! Finally, he really meant something to his family.

And speaking of family, he let go to see Alix running towards him, waving a book in her hand, Kim and Max following close behind.

“Jalil, that was the coolest thing EVER! You saved Theo and won the thing, I’m so happy right now! And here’s the book, it’s called ‘Super Jalil Odyssey’ and we may have taken some creative liberties and might get sued by Nintendo but–”

“ALIX KUBDEL!” their father bellowed, wheeling around to face her with his hands on his hips. “You are _grounded_ , young lady!”

“Huh? Why?”

“I have had _enough_ of your reckless, irresponsible behaviour! You are staying at home until the end of the summer holidays. And for that matter, you are not allowed to have a boyfriend anymore!”

“Yes, finally!” she laughed, pumping her fist in the air. She turned to Kim and said, “By the way I’m dumping you.”

He shrugged. “Okay, cool. Come on Max, let’s go watch the competition replays.” He put his arm around Max and walked off with him. Mr Kubdel was bewildered.

“What on earth…?”

“Oh come on dad, did you really think I’d rob a bank?” she asked.

“But… but…”

“And I have never even seen a single drug in my life. Or beat anyone up, except when I was akumatized, which doesn’t count. And if I knew how to hack into the Paris metro with just a screwdriver then I’d probably already have a degree.”

“So… all of it was untrue?”

“Yeah, pretty much. I never even kissed that idiot. The panther-challenging thing was real, though, but it happened ages ago and I wasn’t even there. The rest was all made up.”

“But then why did you say all of that if it wasn’t true?”

“I was joking! I didn’t think you’d take it seriously… and then it got kinda funny and I got carried away…”

He sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Just go home, Alix.”

“Sure. See you later!”

She ran off, taking the book with her.

“So Jalil, did you know she was making all that up?”

Jalil didn’t want to lie. “Not right from the start, or I wouldn’t have gone hang-gliding in the first place.”

“But she told you later?”

“Kind of. I sort of figured it out, and then… yeah. She told me.”

“I don’t get it. Why does she trust you, but not me?”

“Well…” Jalil hoped he didn’t sound too mean. “I actually believe her when she tells me things, things that are important to her and not just stupid jokes about robbing banks, like… important things… like her being… you know… aromantic…”

He let his voice trail off, not sure if he should have brought that up. But it seemed to have been a good idea.

“Maybe you’re right,” the father said, nodding. “Maybe I could be a bit more… _supportive_ of that. Thank you, Jalil.”

“Uh, no problem.”

“So, need me to drive you home now for a well-deserved rest?”

Jalil looked back up at the Eiffel Tower behind him, feeling rather energized all of a sudden. “No thanks dad, you go ahead. I’ve got another mode of transport that I prefer much, much more.”

His father smiled. “In that case let’s see who gets home first!”

Oh, so that was where Alix got her competitive side from. Jalil picked up Theo’s glider and then pushed through the crowds, up to the base of the Eiffel Tower, then ran up all the countless steps, feeling so filled with energy he wasn’t tiring out at all. The thought of that gold medal around his neck and that cheque in his pocket gave him more strength than he knew he had.

Reaching the top, he took a run-up and then leapt off, soaring into the air. Yes… this was where it had all began! Who would have thought that one simple hang-glide would change his life so drastically, allowing him to win the hearts of an entire country?

Well, he wasn’t complaining. This really was the life.

**Author's Note:**

> So this may somehow at the same time be the best and worst thing I've ever written...


End file.
